In transmission technology, gearwheels designed as loose wheels of various gear stages of a transmission device are connected in a rotationally fixed manner to a transmission shaft on which the loose wheels are arranged by means of so-called synchronization mechanisms. This means that when shifting a gear of a transmission device, differences in rotational speed between a loose wheel, that is to be connected, and a transmission shaft, assigned to this loose wheel, are compensated for by means of a frictionally engaging synchronization mechanism. When the loose wheel and the transmission shaft have reached the same speed, there is no more dynamic frictional torque, and so-called locking teeth release a claw of a synchronization mechanism in order to engage the desired gear in a positive-locking manner.
These kinds of synchronization mechanisms disadvantageously require an undesirably large amount of installation space due to their design, which incorporates friction elements, blocking devices, and claws, and are characterized by high manufacturing costs.
In addition to the synchronization mechanisms described above, there are transmission devices known from practice in which frictionally-engaged shifting elements of simple constructive design, such as plate-type shifting elements, are used to connect loose wheels. In order to keep shifting elements of that kind in an engaged state, they should generally be acted on in each case with a holding force equivalent to the engaged state of the shifting element, which is preferably hydraulically produced. However, this holding force, which has to be permanently applied, impairs the overall efficiency of a transmission device.
From CA 2 451 899 A1 is known a frictionally-engaged shifting element designed with so-called self-energization, which remains in an engaged state without a separately applied holding force due to an applied torque.
However, this has the disadvantage that the connection between a component rotatably mounted on a shaft and the shaft itself is produced in a positive-locking manner, so that coupling the component to the shaft is not problematic regarding the driving comfort when there are low rotational speed differences between the component, or, as the case may be, a loose wheel, and a shaft. If a connection, or, as the case may be, a rotationally fixed connection of the component to the shaft is necessary at high rotational speed differences between the component and the shaft, the positive-locking connection between the shaft and the component to be established through self-energizing, can lead to an impulse exchange with high torque peaks due to very brief response times, which results in an impairment of the driving comfort and undesirably high component stress.